Daily Current Affairs Updates– 17th May 2016

Daily Current affairs News Updates about the National and International events were listed here. Candidates those who are preparing for IBPS/SBI/PO/Clerk exam and all other competitive exams can use this.

IMPRTANT DAYS:

2016 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day observed with theme ICT entrepreneurship for social impact:

·May 17: World Telecommunication and Information Society Day

·The 2016 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) was observed on 17 May 2016.

·This year, WTISD focused on the theme ICT entrepreneurship for social impact. The theme was in accordance with Resolution 68 and as endorsed by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Council 2015.

·The theme for WTISD-16 was in line with ITU’s work in unlocking the potential of ICTs for young innovators and entrepreneurs, SMEs, and others.

üInternational Day against Homophobia and Transphobia

üWorld AIDS Vaccination Day

üWorld Hypertension Day

NATIONAL:

PM Modi to visit Iran for two days in May

·Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Iran for two days on May 22 and 23 this year.

·As per reports, the PM is visiting the nation on the invitation ofIran President Dr Hassan Rouhani.

Center to come up with new bill to improve present law for disabilities: Gehlot

·Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot has said that Center will soon come up with a new bill to improve the present law for Disabilities.

·Inaugurating the 14th National convention for Persons with Disabilities in New Delhi today, Mr. Gehlot said this bill is presently in PMO for consideration. He said in the new bill there will be 19 categories in place of present 7 categories for Disabilities.

·He added that the Government has launched the Accessible India Campaign or Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan as a step towards achieving Universal Accessibility.

·50 Cities and 705 Railway stations across the country are being covered under the Campaign.

World Bank okays $625 million loan for Indian solar programme:

·The World Bank said it has approved a $625 million loan to support India’s grid-connected rooftop solar programme that will facilitate the installation of 400 MW of energy across India.

·The project will be implemented by the State Bank of India which will lend the funds to parties who wish to invest in rooftop photovoltaic systems.

DeitY to build first social security platform:

·The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) will develop India’s first national social security platform.

·DeitY will use the socio-economic caste census to find the identity of citizens to receive benefits under various schemes.

·The platform will authenticate beneficiaries through their Aadhaar card and transfer benefits directly to their Jan Dhan accounts.

Shri Nitin Gadkari Launched INFRACON, ePACE and up-Scaled INAM PRO

·All Stakeholders to Use International Best Practises in Road Building and Demanding stakeholders to make use of innovations and successful best practices from round the world in engineering and construction of roads.

·A six-day long global conference envisioned on economic empowerment of women to foster leadership and entrepreneurship was held in New Delhi.

·Women across many countries and all walks of life will meet to discuss social empowerment, leadership, economic, business and social issues such as innovation, start-ups, leadership, entrepreneurship, business and globalisation, diplomacy, sustainable development, peace and spirituality, social empowerment, environment and art.

·The Women Economic Forum is being hosted by All Ladies League with a theme of Women: Uplifting and Uniting the World.

15 days Swachh Office drive launched across the country

·Urban Development Minister M.Venkaiah Naidu launched a 15-day special ‘Swachh Office Drive’ for ensuring cleanliness at all Government offices across the country as an intensive thematic campaign under Swachh Bharat Mission.

·The Minister also planted a Neem sapling at Nirman Bhawan and inspected the building for about an hour for an on the spot assessment of sanitation.

·The Ministry’s suggestion include ensuring water supply at 45 litres per head per day, one toilet for every 25 persons, urinals to be provided based on employee strength, removal of stains every week, checking electrical fittings twice a week, acid cleaning and scrubbing of toilets daily, schedule of inspections etc.

INTERNATIONAL:

World-First Scanning Helium Microscope Built In Australia

·World-First Scanning Helium Microscope Built In Australiai. Australian researchers have built the world’s first Scanning Helium Microscope to examine materials without disturbing them.

·The new microscope will pave the way to study human, animal and plant samples, as well as computer chips and pharmaceutical drugs, without damaging or changing them.

·University of Newcastle in collaboration with scientists from England’s University of Cambridge developed the microscope with helium to examine structures without damaging or changing them.

·The new findings has implications for major industries like solar energy, defence and information technology.

·China has successfully blasted off a Yaogan-30 remote-sensing satellite into orbit to carry out land surveys and assist with disaster relief efforts from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China’s Gobi desert.

·It was launched into a sun-synchronous orbit of 429 by 437 miles with inclination at 98.23 degrees. It was the 227th flight of the Long March rocket series.

China:

üCapital: Beijing

üCurrency: Renminbi

üPresident: Xi Jinping

India, US held first Maritime Security Dialogue:

·India and the United States (US) held the first round of discussions under the recently-constituted Maritime Security Dialogue.

· The dialogue was held between the officials of Defence and External Affairs ministries and their US counterparts.

·The Indian side was represented by Shambhu Kumaran, Joint Secretary in-charge of Planning and International Cooperation (PIC) and Munu Mahawar, Ministry of External Affairs Joint Secretary, Americas (AMS).

·While, David Shear, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs; Manpreet Anand, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs and Vice Admiral Aucoin, Commander, US Seventh Fleet, were the officials from the American side.

British Royals launched Heads Together campaign to tackle stigma of mental health:

·Heads Together: A campaign launched by British Royals to tackle stigma of mental health.

President of India receives first copies of books “Tagore’s Vision of the Contemporary World” and “Tagore and Russia”

·India’s President Pranab Mukherjee will receive the first copies of books Tagore’s Vision of the Contemporary World” and ‘Tagore and Russia” at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

·Both books are being published by Delhi based Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) also contains papers presented at international conferences organized by ICCR in New Delhi and Moscow in 2011 as part of the 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations of Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore.

Indian Council for Cultural Relations:

üHeadquarters: New Delhi

üPresident: Prof. Lokesh Chandra

AWARDS AND HONOURS:

S Korea’s Han Kang wins Man Booker International

·South Korean author Han Kang has won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize for her novel ‘The Vegetarian’. Han (45), the first South Korean to win the award, will share the prize money of £50,000 (around $72,000) equally with her 28-year-old British translator Deborah Smith.

·The international literary award was introduced in 2004 to complement the Man Booker Prize.

Four Indian Peacekeepers, civilian to be honored posthumously

·Four Indian peace keepers and a civilian, who sacrificed their lives while serving in the UN peacekeeping operations in the year 2015 to be honored posthumously.

· They will be honored along with other 124 personnel

·Four Indian peacekeepers honored with Dag Hammarskjold Medal

FOUR INDIAN PEACEKEEPERS:

ü1.Head Constable Shubhkaran Yadav

ü2.Rifleman Manish Malik

ü3.Havildar Amal Deka

ü4.Rakesh Kumar

üCIVILIAN – Gagan Punjabi

PRDP named worst film at 2016 Ghanta Awards:

·The Salman Khan starrer film ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’ (PRDP) was named worst film at the sixth Ghanta Awards held in Mumbai.

·Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan received the Ghanta Award for worst actor for his role in ‘Dilwale’.

·Sonam Kapoor bagged the worst actress award for PRDP, while Vikas Bahl was named worst director for his film ‘Shaandaar’.

IIT-Kgp student bags European Materials Research Society Award:

·IIT-Kharagpur’s PhD studentNandini Bhandarubagged the European Materials Research Society’s Young Scientist Award for hercontribution to materials science.

·She has won the awardat E-MRS’s 2016 Spring Meeting in Lille, France based on her outstanding contribution to materials science and nanotechnology, particularly nano-patterning of soft films and surfaces.

·She proposes in her innovation that possibility of fabricating nano-scale patterned surfaces, which may act as themother boardfor many of the devices.

·She works at theInstability and Soft PatterningLaboratory of IIT-Kharagpur. Her domain of research is nano-fabrication, including soft-lithography, thin film dewetting, polymer blend films and self-assembly.

Sonakshi Sinha gets ‘The Angries’ award:

·The team of the upcoming film ‘The Angry Birds Movie’ has presented a special award titled ‘The Angries’ to actress Sonakshi Sinha “for taking on cyber bullies”.

·The makers of the film have started ‘The Angries’ campaign wherein celebrities who get angry for a good cause will be awarded. ‘The Angry Birds Movie’ will release in India on May 27

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY:

Mphasis partners ToneTag for digital banking solutions:

·Bangalore based IT major Mphasis and Tone Tag a sound-based proximity communication company entered into a strategic partnership to provide a range of digital banking solutions for the banking and retail industries.

·Both the majors aim to enrich the retail experience in the offline establishments of both banking as well as commerce industries.

·Mphasis will collaborate to build solutions and be an integration partner for ToneTag’s technology globally to facilitate contact-less proximity communication, location based services and customer engagement services.

·As part of this move Mphasis will be providing omni-channel customer engagement and contactless checkout solutions to benefit physical outlets, dealerships, bank branches as well as experience stores.

Capgemini launches digital literacy centre in Navi Mumbai

·Capgemini jointly with Nasscom has launched their digital literacy centre at the Helen Keller Institute of Deaf and Deaf& blind dedicated to training individuals in Digital Literacy in Panvel and surrounding areas of Navi Mumbai.

·Capgemini launches digital literacy centre in Navi Mumbai

·The initiative is intended at tie together the digital divide and creating a digitally literate and empowered generation. The centre will be training over 1200 persons with disabilities.

·This is the ninth such centre launched as part of the National Digital Literacy Mission move that will enable training infrastructure and trainers at the centre with the help of the institute and the project implementation partner.

NTPC forms joint venture with Coal India:

·State-owned power generating firm NTPC has signed a joint venture agreement with state-run Coal India to revive plants run by the Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCIL), NTPC said.

·The joint venture would initially be incorporated with a 50:50 contribution from both but also “contains a provision of inducting strategic partners at a later date”, it added.

Oracle’s Catz becomes top-paid female exec in US:

·Safra Catz, the co-CEO of Oracle, emerged as the highest-paid US female executive with a $56.9 million package in fiscal 2015, as per the Bloomberg Pay Index, a ranking of the 200 best-paid executives at companies that trade on US exchanges.

· Catz was followed by Alphabet’s Ruth Porat and General Motors’ Mary Barra with $41.1 and $36.3 million packages respectively.

·Users can create different groups for topics and invite others via messaging, email or a social network. Available on Android and iOS, Spaces will compete with the likes of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

·The launch marks the fifth attempt to get the massive balloon airborne, with previous bids thwarted by bad weather, NASA said in a release.

·Long-duration balloon flights at constant altitudes play an important role in providing inexpensive access to the near-space environment for science and technology.

·The 532,000 cubic metres balloon is expected to circumnavigate the globe about the southern hemisphere’s mid-latitudes once every one to three weeks, depending on wind speeds in the stratosphere, NASA said. The aim is for it remain airborne for more than 100 days.

Twitter character limit may exclude photos, link:

·According to a Bloomberg report, micro-blogging platform Twitter may stop counting photos and links as part of its 140-character limit for tweets in the next two weeks.

·After automatically being shortened by Twitter, links currently take up 23 characters in a tweet. The company earlier this year considered raising a tweet’s limit to 10,000 characters.